Transducers employing integral protective coatings and supports

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a force transducer fabricated from silicon and having the appearance of an annular disk. Disposed on one surface of said disk are one or more piezoresistive elements which respond to a force applied to a diaphragm portion of said disk which is surrounded by the wall formed by the annular ring. The disk is mounted in a housing with the piezoresistive elements facing away from the applied force surface; this surface of the diaphragm and ring has formed thereon a thin layer of silicon dioxide which serves to protect the disk against deleterious agents present in the force transmitting environment while further serving to eliminate an undesirable bimetallic effect.

Kurtz et al.

[ TRANSDUCERS EMPLOYING INTEGRAL PROTECTIVE COATINGS AND SUPPORTS [75] Inventors: Anthony D. Kurtz, Englewood;

Charles L. Cravel, Riveredge; Joseph R. Mellon, Jr., Wood-Ridge, all of [73] Assignee: Kulite Semiconductor Products, Inc.,

Ridgefield, NJ.

[22] Filed: Oct. 5, 1971 211 App'l. No.: 186,694

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,662,312 5/1972 Thore 338/3 [4 Aug. 14, 1973 Primary Examiner-C. L. Albritton Attomey-Arthur L. Plevy [57] ABSTRACT There is disclosed a force transducer fabricated from silicon and having the appearance of an annular disk. Disposed on one surface of said disk are one or more piezoresistive elements which respond to a force applied to a diaphragm portion of said disk which is surrounded by the wall formed by the annular ring. The disk is mounted in a housing with the piezoresistive elements facing away from the applied force surface; this surface of the diaphragm and ring has formed thereon a thin layer of silicon dioxide which serves to protect the disk against deleterious agents present in the force transmitting environment while further serving to eliminate an undesirable bimetallic effect.

7 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures TRANSDUCERS EMPLOYING INTEGRAL PROTECTIVE COATINGS AND SUPPORTS This invention relates to electromechanical transducers and, more particularly, to such a transducer for converting mechanical displacements into electrical signals, such transducers being of the type employing piezoresistive elements fabricated from silicon.

Presently, the semiconductor transducers, because of their relatively small dimensions, are finding use in: a wide number of applications. Semiconductor transducers besides being smaller than conventional mechanical types, possess higher reliability and increased response.

Because of their relatively small size, such transducers have found widespread application in the field .of medicine. These transducers may actually be inserted into the blood stream, tissue or otherwise coupled to the body for various measurements. It is, of course, realized that for such stringent applications great care has to be taken in affording reliability to the transducers while fabricating the same as small and as sensitive as possible to permit implantation if desired.

Basically, a piezoresistive type of transducer employs a silicon resistive element which resistance varies according to the intensity or magnitude of an applied force. The force is usually applied to a relatively thin semiconductor diaphragm or membrane to which the The force being measured is transferred'thi'ough the.

force summing membrane to the strain responsive elements causing the element to expand or compress. This produces a change in the resistance of the element. Such elements are conventionally arranged as a'Wheatstone Bridge circuit, with one tofour of the bridge legs being active.

When using the semiconductor transducer in the medical electronic field or other fields, a great many problems exist.

First, the device must be made small to have a relatively good response to small magnitude forces. This contemplates using a relatively thin diaphragm in order to respond to or deflect with the. application thereto of small forces. Such thin diaphragms are difficult to fabricate. This is so for a number of reasons, the main being that in the manufacturingprocess the diaphragm must be supported-for soldering of leads, mounting in a housing and so on. In the support process, they may be easily ruptured or cracked because of the small thickness of the diaphragm.

Secondly, in operation within the environment, many deleterious agents which exist therein, suchas salt solutions and so on, react with the silicon and serve to cause chemical changes due to electrolytic actionor otherwise which tend to destroy the diaphragm of'silicon and hence render the device unusable.

Prior art devices attempt to solve this problem by coating thesilicon diaphragm with a grease-like compound or an epoxy. These serve to change the characteristics of the transducer and are also subject to decomposition. Furthermore, if they are not uniformly applied, they can cause non-linearities in transducer response. Other approaches bond or glue protective layers of metal (gold, platinum), rubber and so on to the diaphragm. These approaches are also unreliable and expensive as they involve multiple additional steps in the manufacturing procedure.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved semiconductor transducer employing a thin diaphragm and including a thin coating for protecting the semi-conductor diaphragm from deleterious agents present in the force transmitting environment.

According to an embodiment of the present invention,.a transducer assembly for measuring the intensity of a force applied thereto comprises an annular disk fabricated from silicon and having a central opening defining an active area for deflecting in response to an applied force, a piezoresistive element is located on the surface of said disk furthest removed from said opening and within the active area, a thin layer of silicon dioxide covers all the exposed surfaces of said disk within said central opening, and means for mounting said disk with said layer of silicon dioxide facing the direction of said force whereby said piezoresistive element is separated from the force transmitting environment by said thickness of said disk and said layer of silicon dioxide.

These and other objects of the present invention will become clearer if reference is made to the following specification when read in conjunction with the accompanying figures, in which:

FIG. 1 is across-sectional side view of a transducer according to this invention;

FlG. 2 is a plan view of the transducer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the transducer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a transducer mounted to a suitable housing;

, FIGS. 5A-5C are cross-sectional views useful in explaining one fabrication process of such a transducer;

and 1 F IGS. (SA-6D are still another series of crossse ctional views showing an alternate method of fabrica tion.

Referring to FIG. 1, numeral 10 references a transducer having an integral supporting annular ring 11 fabricatedfrom silicon. The annular structure 11 is essentially an annular disk fabricated from a single crystal or wafer of silicon, as will be explained.

The annular disk or ring 11 has a central aperture 12, the diameter of which defines an active area 14, which deflects or displaces upon application of a force -F thereto.

Although not drawn to scale, the total height,h, of the unit may conventionally be about 3-6 mils, while the thickness of the diaphragm formed within the active area 14 may be about 0.5 mils although smaller thickness diaphragms may be fabricated.

The configuration shown has one or more piezoresistive elements 15 diffused into the bottom surface of the disk 10. Such piezoresistive elements 15 are formed by conventionaldiffusion techniques and are essentially diffused silicon resistors isolated by P-N junctions, whose resistance varies according to the magnitude of the applied force F. The force F serves to deflect the diaphragm defined by the active area 14 thus serving to cause elements 15 to compress or expand and thereby causing resistive changes according to the well known piezoresistiveeffect.

Prior to the diffusion process, alayer 16 of silicon dioxide (SiO is formed over the bottom surface of the disk 10. Windows on this layer are then opened by an etching technique to allow the formation of diffused piezoresistive elements by selective solid state diffusion. Metal contact lands 17 are then deposited. Leads 18 are coupled to contacts 17 and a source of voltage is applied via leads 18 in order to bias the devices 15 and therefore obtain current changes according to resistance changes of the devices.

The annular disk is further treated to provide an additional layer 20 of silicon dioxide on the top surface of the disk 10. This layer 20, as will be explained, serves to protect the transducer 10 from deleterious or caustic agents such as saline solutions which may exist in the biomedical force transmitting environment. The layer 20 further serves to increase the overall response of the transducer by substantially eliminating the bimetallic affect which normally would be present.

The structure of FIG. 1 may be fabricated as follows.

Starting with an n-type silicon wafer of desired thickness, one would chemically etch the central aperture 12 of the annular ring 11 by using a combination oxide masking and photoresist technique or a simple photoresist technique. The etching would be done to a depth resulting in a diaphragm of the desired thickness. Oxide layers 20 and 16 are then formed about the wafer and windows are then opened in the oxide layer 16 to allow the formation by selective solid state diffusion of the piezoresistive elements 15. This therefore provides the structure 10 by relatively simple operations. It will be shown subsequently that by using epitaxial growth techniques similar structures can be provided with additional advantages.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of transducer 10, showing the annular disk configuration more clearly. Although the disk is shown as circular, it is obvious that other configurations could be employed as well.

FIG. 3 shows a bottom view of a transducer 10 showing two piezoresistive elements diffused on the bottom surface thereof and within the active area of the disk. Appropriate terminals of the elements 15 are brought out to metallic contacts 17 desirably located underneath the thicker portion of the annular disk 10 or the non-active area, as that area which does not substantially deflect or distort upon application of forces to the transducer.

Before explaining the fabrication of such devices as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a brief explanation of the advantages and operation of the device will be given.

Basically, a major disadvantage encountered in using diffusion techniques in producing thin diaphragms for small pressure or force transducers resides in a lack of sensitivity at low pressure or for small. forces. This is due to the fact that practically there is a lower limit as to diaphragm thickness limited by fabrication techniques. For example, if one desires to manufacture or produce a diaphragm of silicon which is less than, for example, 0.0005 inches (0.5 mils), it is found that the same is too fragile to handle or to be operated on.

The use of an integral silicon cup or disk to provide added mechanical strength and support, to permit clamping of the diaphragm is well known in the art. However, although the basic approach of producing theintegral disk is known, the resultant structures are attendant with problems.

First, it is desired to make the diaphragm or active area of the annular disk as thin as possible (0.0001 inch to 0.0005 inch) while, for good support, the annular 4 ring should be as thick as possible (0.003 inch to 0.006 inch).

These relative dimensions introduce afabrication difficulty. The center portion or section of the structure has to be chemically milled to produce the active area. If the entire height, h, of the ring is to be, for example, 0.005 inch or 5 mils, this means that 0.0048 inch of silicon material must be milled away to provide an active area or diaphragm of 0.0002 inch thick. From a comparison of such dimensions. it is seen that it would be difficult to maintain flatness, parallelism and uniformity across the active area. Therefore, it appears that it is necessary to keep the annular ring rather thin as well.

A more serious problem arises due to the bimetallic effect between the silicon dioxide layer 16 of FIG. 1 and the silicon diaphragm or active area of the transducer. During the processing step of diffusing the piezoresistive elements 15 into the diaphragm, a layer of silicon dioxide 16 is thermally grown on the bottom surface of the transducer. It is necessary to leave this layer 16 intact to provide passivation of the diffused junction.

The silicon dioxide layer is grown at a temperature of about 1,l50 and since its expansibility is considerably less than silicon (0.5 X 10"/C compared to 2.5 X l0'/C), a diffused diaphragm is found to be convex at room temperature. This is unacceptable as the convex configuration predistorts the piezoresistive elements and produces non-linear deflections. As the temperature is raised, moreover the disk tends to flatten, thereby affecting overall performance at higher temperature. This effect is noticeable even with diaphragms which are 0.001 inch thick. Since the stiffness of the diaphragm is a function of the reciprocal of a power of its thickness, the effectis veryappreciable for thin diaphragms.

The transducer configuration shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and the techniques of producing the same eliminates these problems.

Before discussing the mounting apparatus and housing assembly (FIG. 4) associated with such transducers, reference is made to FIG. 5 to show an alternate method of fabricating such a transducer.

The process begins with a piece or single crystal silicon wafer 30 (FIG. 5A).

The next step is to thermally grow a layer of silicon dioxide 31 (FIG. 5B) and then by epitaxial means a polycrystalline layer 32 of silicone is deposited.

The n-type wafer 30 is now machined and polished or thinned down to about 0.0002 inch or less, thus representing the thickness of the diaphragm.

A second layer 33 of silicon dioxide is now thermally grown on the polished surface and piezoresistive elements 35 are formed by a conventional diffusion process.

The final step (FIG. 5C) is to chemically mill out the center of the polycrystalline layer 32 to form an annular support ring. This is no longer a critical step, since the layer of silicon dioxide 31 will resist the chemical etchant such as a combination of nitric acid (I'INO and hydroflouric acid (I-IF), used to mill out the silicon. The thickness of the diaphragm 30 as determined by the mechanical lapping and polishing step is an inherently more controllable and accurate process than a chemical milling operation. Therefore, the width of the diaphragm is fixed, accurate and the surfaces are smooth and uniform. Also as seen in FIG. 5C the silicon diaphragm is sandwiched between two layers of silicon dioxide 31 and 33 which therefore serves to eliminate the bimetallic effect, because of the equal forces exerted on the opposite surfaces of the silicon diaphram 30 during temperature cycling.

Since the sensitivity of the sensor is a function of the There is also a layer 36 of silicon dioxide formed within the periphery of the annular ring and above the surfaces.

The above-described processes of etching, milling, diffusing and thermal growth are well known in the art and capable of being implemented by one so skilled; However, the implementation of the steps to provide the final transducer are important to the inventive concept.

Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown still another technique of fabrication of such 'a tranducer configuration.

A wafer of n-type silicon 30 is-coated by a thermal growth process with a uniform layer of silicon dioxide 41' to surround the entire wafer (FIG. 6A).

A layer 42 of polycrystalline silicon is epitaxially deposited on one surface of layer 41.

The opposite surface of the composite structure is thenmachined by a mechanical milling process (FIG. 6C) to obtain the desired thickness of layer 30. After reaching'the desired 'diaphragmthickness, a new layerof silicon dioxide 47 is grown and the piezoresistive elements 46 diffusedtherein. 5

The polycrystalline layer 42 is now chemically milled or etched to form the central aperture of the annular ring (FIG. 6D).

FIG. 6D further shows a metal deposition layer 49 which can be deposited directly on the surfaces of the annular ring. This is important, as the silicon dioxide layer 41 serves to isolate the diaphragm and transducer and there is no need to provide isolation by P-N junctions as is done in the prior art.

The metal contacts 17 of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 can be provided by depositingmetal areas on the silicon dioxide layer 33 which contact the diffused resistors at their extremities, or alternately large contact areascan be diffused simultaneously with the piezoresistive elements The lead wires 18 (FIG. 1) may-beattached to the metallic contacts by electronicwelding or thermocompression bonding.

Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a support housing 60 for the transducer assembly as shown in FIG. 1. The housing 60 may be fabricated from a suitable metal suchas brass, steel, nickel, invar and soon, or alternatively some other material-with a solderable metal layer onthe inner surface thereof.

The housing 60 is generally cylindrical in shape with a top opening 61 about the same size as the active diaphragm area 62.

The top surface periphery of the annular ringportion of the transducer may be soldered by means of a solder glass bond 63, to a'silicon, tungsten or other low expansion-material block 64. The block 64 may then be glass soldered to the housing as shown in FIG. 4 by the solder bond, or alternately a solderable metal'layer may be providedonthe surface of the block 64 and the resulting structure'may be soldered using metallic solder to the housing 60;

This gives a virtual hermetic sealed structure which willnot allow the ingress of biological fluids in the force F transmitting atmosphere to enter the housing and attack the transducers or metal contacts. The integral silicon dioxide layer 65 of course protects the diaphragm from saline solutions which would otherwise create chemical reactions, electrolytic or otherwise, with the silicon thus serving to destroy the transducer assembly.

A typical annular diaphragm as shown in FIG. I, for example, was approximately 1/32 inch in diameter. The total height of the annular ring was about 0.003 inches, while the diaphragm thickness was approximately 0.0005 inches. The silicon dioxide layers could vary between l,000 Angstrom units to 30,000 Angstrom units and were typically 8,000 Angstrom units thick.

In summation, the structures described herein possess the following advantages.

1. The annular support or ring configuration facilitates fabrication of very thin diaphragms since it affords structural strength to the device during the'manufacturing process.

2. The annular support provides an integral clamping surface about the periphery of the diaphragm thereby assuring proper and linear deflection of the diaphragm.

3. The annular support allows the formation of a protective oxide layer on the force responsive surface of the diaphragm thus preventing electrolytic action due to saline solutions present in the force transmitting environment from reacting with the n-type silicon wafer and piezoresistive elements.

4. The thickness of the diaphragm is determined by a mechanical lapping technique which is inherently easier to control for providing uniform and smooth diaphragm surfaces.

The fabrication techniques shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 employ epitaxial growth processes as explained, the advantage being that the layer of silicon dioxide would serve to control the penetration of the etchant when forming the central aperture of the annular ring.

However, it is obvious that one could provide the exact integral silicon structure of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 by operating upon a single wafer of n-type silicon.

For example, starting with the single wafer of n-type silicon of, for example, a thickness of 5 mils, one would chemically etch the central aperture of the ring by a photoresist technique. This would be done to the desired depth. Next, one would lap, polish or treat the opposite surface for accommodating the piezoresistive elements to the final diaphragm thickness. The silicon dioxide layers as shown in FIG. 1 could be first thermally deposited or done later. The main factor being that the structure can be formed from an integral piece of ntype silicon and because of the silicon dioxide layers eliminate the electrolytic action due to saline solutions and avoid bimetallic effects as well.

What is claimed is:

l. A transducer assembly for measuring the intensity of a force applied thereto comprising:

a. an annular cup-like member fabricated from silicon and having an open top end and a closed bottom end, and having a central opening defining an active area for deflecting in response to an applied force, said central opening being surrounded by the sidewall portions of said annular cup-like member,

b. a piezoresistive element located on the surface of said closed bottom end furthest removed from said opening and within said active area for varying its resistance in response to said applied force,

0. a layer of silicon dioxide relatively thin as compared to the thickness of said member within said active area, said layer covering all exposed surfaces within said central opening including said active area and said side wall surfaces,

d. at least one metallic contact located on the same surface as said piezoresistive element and positioned directly beneath the thickest portion of said annular member as defined by said sidewall and as that portion not within said active area,

e. means coupling said metallic contact to said piezoresistive element, and means for mounting said disk with said layer of silicon dioxide facing the direction of said force whereby said piezoresistive element is separated from the force transmitting environment by said thickness of said disk and said layer of silicon dioxide.

2. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 wherein said means for mounting said disk comprises,

a. a hollow tubular member having an opening slightly smaller than the dimensions of said disk but larger than the dimensions of said active area, and

b. means for securing said disk about its periphery to said tubular member with said piezoresistive element positioned within the internal hollow of said tubular member.

3. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 wherein said piezoresistive member is diffused into the surface of said annular silicon disk.

4. A transducer for measuring the intensity of a force applied thereto comprising,

a. a relatively thin diaphram of silicon,

b. at least one piezoresistive element diffused on one surface thereof for varying resistance in accordance with the intensity of a force applied to said diaphragm,

c. a thin layer of silicon dioxide covering said surface containing said piezoresistive elements,

d. a second thin layer of silicon dioxide covering the opposite surface of said diaphram to form a sandwich like structure to thereby reduce any warping of said diaphragm due to the bimetallic effect, and

e. an annular ring of polycrystalline silicon secured to said opposite surface to form a support for said sandwich structure, the central aperture of said ring defining the area of said diaphragm which will deflect upon application of a force to said transducer.

5. A transducer of the type for monitoring the intensity of a transmitted force, comprising:

a. a thin diaphragm of silicon having a top and a bottom surface,

b. an annular ring having a central aperture of a dimension less than the widest dimension of said diaphragm,

c. means coupling said ring to said diaphragm at said bottom surface thereof to form a cup like assembly, with the area of said diaphragm surrounded by said ring forming an active area capable of deflecting upon receipt of a force,

d. at least one piezoresistive element located on said top surface of said diaphragm and within the central opening defined by said ring to change resistance in accordance with the intensity of said force,

e. a thin layer of silicon dioxide covering the exposed surface of said annular ring and said bottom surface of said diaphragm to protect said silicon diaphragm from deleterious factors present in said force transmitting environment, and

f. means coupled to a portion of said annular ring farthest removed from said bottom surface of said diaphragm to position the same for response to said force with said layer of silicon dioxide facing the direction of said force.

6. A transducer of the type for monitoring the intensity of a transmitted force, comprising:

a. a cylindrical cup-like member fabricated from an integral piece of silicon having a closed end and an opened end, said closed end having a top surface and a bottom surface, said bottom surface being surrounded by the sidewall of said cup-like member, whereby said bottom surface and said sidewall of said member form an annular ring about said closed end to thereby form a central aperture at said opened end,

b. at least one force responsive element located on the top surface of said closed end and capable of providing a variable resistance in accordance with the intensity of said force,

c. a layer of silicon dioxide covering the top and inside surfaces of said sidewalls and said bottom surface of said closed end, and

d. means coupled to the top surface of said sidewalls nearest said opened end for mounting said transducer in a position to respond to said force to be monitored with said layer of silicon dioxide facing the direction of said force.

7. A transducer assembly of the type for monitoring the intensity of a transmitted force, comprising: a. an annular cup-like member fabricated from an integral piece of silicon having a central aperture, said cup-like member having a bottom closed end and a top opened end, said bottom closed end having a first surface of a dimension equal to the largest dimension of said member and a second inner surface equal to the dimensions of said central aperture, said inner surface defining a force deflection area, said inner surface being surrounded by the sidewall of said cup-like member, b. a piezoresistive element located on the first surface of said bottom and within said force deflection area and responsive to deflection of said area to provide a variable resistance according to the intensity of said force, c. a thin layer of silicon dioxide covering all the inner 3 ,7 5 3 1 96 9 l0 surfaces of said annular cup-like member and said sideface of said cup-like member furthest removed from wall as surrounding said central aperture to protect said said bottom closed end for mounting said transducer silicon from caustic factors present in said force transwith said silicon dioxide layer facing said force. mitting environment, and d. means coupled to the sur- 

1. A transducer assembly for measuring the intensity of a force applied thereto comprising: a. an annular cup-like member fabricated from silicon and having an open top end and a closed bottom end, and having a central opening defining an active area for deflecting in response to an applied force, said central opening being surrounded by the sidewall portions of said annular cup-like member, b. a piezoresistive element located on the surface of said closed bottom end furthest removed from said opening and within said active area for varying its resistance in response to said applied force, c. a layer of silicon dioxide relatively thin as compared to the thickness of said member within said active area, said layer covering all exposed surfaces within said central opening including said active area and said side wall surfaces, d. at least one metallic contact located on the same surface as said piezoresistive element and positioned directly beneath the thickest portion of said annular member as defined by said sidewall and as that portion not within said active area, e. means coupling said metallic contact to said piezoresistive element, and f. means for mounting said disk with said layer of silicon dioxide facing the direction of said force whereby said piezoresistive element is separated from the force transmitting environment by said thickness of said disk and said layer of silicon dioxide.
 2. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 wherein said means for mounting said disk comprises, a. a hollow tubular member having an opening slightly smaller than the dimensions of said disk but larger than the dimensions of said active area, and b. means for securing said disk about its periphery to said tubular member with said piezoresistive element positioned within the internal hollow of said tubular member.
 3. The transducer assembly according to claim 1 wherein said piezoresistive member is diffused into the surface of said annular silicon disk.
 4. A transducer for measuring thE intensity of a force applied thereto comprising, a. a relatively thin diaphram of silicon, b. at least one piezoresistive element diffused on one surface thereof for varying resistance in accordance with the intensity of a force applied to said diaphragm, c. a thin layer of silicon dioxide covering said surface containing said piezoresistive elements, d. a second thin layer of silicon dioxide covering the opposite surface of said diaphram to form a ''''sandwich like'''' structure to thereby reduce any warping of said diaphragm due to the bimetallic effect, and e. an annular ring of polycrystalline silicon secured to said opposite surface to form a support for said sandwich structure, the central aperture of said ring defining the area of said diaphragm which will deflect upon application of a force to said transducer.
 5. A transducer of the type for monitoring the intensity of a transmitted force, comprising: a. a thin diaphragm of silicon having a top and a bottom surface, b. an annular ring having a central aperture of a dimension less than the widest dimension of said diaphragm, c. means coupling said ring to said diaphragm at said bottom surface thereof to form a cup like assembly, with the area of said diaphragm surrounded by said ring forming an active area capable of deflecting upon receipt of a force, d. at least one piezoresistive element located on said top surface of said diaphragm and within the central opening defined by said ring to change resistance in accordance with the intensity of said force, e. a thin layer of silicon dioxide covering the exposed surface of said annular ring and said bottom surface of said diaphragm to protect said silicon diaphragm from deleterious factors present in said force transmitting environment, and f. means coupled to a portion of said annular ring farthest removed from said bottom surface of said diaphragm to position the same for response to said force with said layer of silicon dioxide facing the direction of said force.
 6. A transducer of the type for monitoring the intensity of a transmitted force, comprising: a. a cylindrical cup-like member fabricated from an integral piece of silicon having a closed end and an opened end, said closed end having a top surface and a bottom surface, said bottom surface being surrounded by the sidewall of said cup-like member, whereby said bottom surface and said sidewall of said member form an annular ring about said closed end to thereby form a central aperture at said opened end, b. at least one force responsive element located on the top surface of said closed end and capable of providing a variable resistance in accordance with the intensity of said force, c. a layer of silicon dioxide covering the top and inside surfaces of said sidewalls and said bottom surface of said closed end, and d. means coupled to the top surface of said sidewalls nearest said opened end for mounting said transducer in a position to respond to said force to be monitored with said layer of silicon dioxide facing the direction of said force.
 7. A transducer assembly of the type for monitoring the intensity of a transmitted force, comprising: a. an annular cup-like member fabricated from an integral piece of silicon having a central aperture, said cup-like member having a bottom closed end and a top opened end, said bottom closed end having a first surface of a dimension equal to the largest dimension of said member and a second inner surface equal to the dimensions of said central aperture, said inner surface defining a force deflection area, said inner surface being surrounded by the sidewall of said cup-like member, b. a piezoresistive element located on the first surface of said bottom and within said force deflection area and responsive to deflection of said area to provide a variable resistance according to the intensity of said force, c. a thin layer of silicon dioxide covering all the inner surfaces of said annular cup-Like member and said sidewall as surrounding said central aperture to protect said silicon from caustic factors present in said force transmitting environment, and d. means coupled to the surface of said cup-like member furthest removed from said bottom closed end for mounting said transducer with said silicon dioxide layer facing said force. 